Docker Desktop terms

Commercial use of Docker Desktop in larger enterprises (more than 250 employees OR more than $10 million USD in annual revenue) requires a paid subscription.

This page contains information on how to install, launch, and upgrade Docker Desktop on a Debian distribution.

Prerequisites#

To install Docker Desktop successfully, you must:

  • Meet the general system requirements.
  • Have a 64-bit version of Debian 12.

  • For a Gnome Desktop environment, you must also install AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Gnome extensions.

  • For non-Gnome Desktop environments, gnome-terminal must be installed:

console $ sudo apt install gnome-terminal

Install Docker Desktop#

Recommended approach to install Docker Desktop on Debian:

  1. Set up Docker's apt repository. See step one of Install using the apt repository.

  2. Download the latest DEB package. For checksums, see the Release notes.

  3. Install the package with apt as follows:

console $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install ./docker-desktop-<arch>.deb Don't forget to substitute <arch> with the architecture you want.

[!NOTE]

At the end of the installation process, apt displays an error due to installing a downloaded package. You can ignore this error message.

text N: Download is performed unsandboxed as root, as file '/home/user/Downloads/docker-desktop.deb' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

By default, Docker Desktop is installed at /opt/docker-desktop.

There are a few post-install configuration steps done through the post-install script contained in the deb package.

The post-install script:

  • Sets the capability on the Docker Desktop binary to map privileged ports and set resource limits.
  • Adds a DNS name for Kubernetes to /etc/hosts.
  • Creates a symlink from /usr/local/bin/com.docker.cli to /usr/bin/docker. This is because the classic Docker CLI is installed at /usr/bin/docker. The Docker Desktop installer also installs a Docker CLI binary that includes cloud-integration capabilities and is essentially a wrapper for the Compose CLI, at/usr/local/bin/com.docker.cli. The symlink ensures that the wrapper can access the classic Docker CLI.

Launch Docker Desktop#

{ { < include "desktop-linux-launch.md" > } }

Upgrade Docker Desktop#

Once a new version for Docker Desktop is released, the Docker UI shows a notification. You need to download the new package each time you want to upgrade Docker Desktop and run:

$ sudo apt-get install ./docker-desktop-<arch>.deb

Don't forget to substitute <arch> with the architecture you want.

Next steps#